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Origen, Commentarium In Evangelium Matthaei (Lib. 12-17)

English for the 1 passage of this work that the Atlas of Ancient Myth, Magic in the Ancient Texts and a study of demons and angels quote or cite, and which the library holds in no published English. The numbers are the edition's own references.

13.6.2

ἰατροί μὲν οὖν φυσιολογείτωσαν. ἅτε μηδὲ ἀκάθαρτον πνεῦμα εἶναι νομίζοντες κατὰ τὸν τόπον ἀλλὰ σωματικόν <τι> σύμπτωμα, καὶ φυσιολογοῦντες τὰ ὑγρὰ λεγέτωσαν κινεῖσθαι τὰ ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ κατά τινα συμπάθειαν τὴν πρὸς τὸ σεληνιακὸν φῶς, ὑγρὰν ἔχον φύσιν. ἡμεῖς δὲ οἱ καὶ τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ πιστεύοντες ὅτι τὸ νόσημα τοῦτο ἀπὸ πνεύματος ἀκαθάρτου, ἀλάλου καὶ κωφοῦ ἐν τοῖς πάσχουσιν αὐτὸ θεωρεῖται ἐνεργούμενον, ὁρῶντες δὲ ὅτι καὶ οἱ εἰθισμένοι παραπλησίως τοῖς ἐπαοιδοῖς τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ἐπαγγέλλεσθαι τὴν κατὰ τοὺς τοιούτους θεραπείαν δοκοῦσί ποτε ἐπιτυγχάνειν ἐν αὐτοῖς, φήσομεν ὅτι μήποτε ὑπὲρ τοῦ διαβάλλειν τὰ κτίσματα τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα καὶ ἀδικία οὐρανὸν τὸ στόμα αὐτῶν«,

So let the doctors give their natural explanations, since they do not even think that there is an unclean spirit in this case, but some bodily symptom; and, explaining it physically, let them say that the fluids in the head are moved by a certain sympathy with the light of the moon, which has a moist nature. But we, who also believe the gospel that this disease is seen to be worked in those who suffer it by an unclean, dumb and deaf spirit, and who see too that those who, like the enchanters of the Egyptians, are accustomed to promise the treatment of such cases sometimes seem to succeed with them, will say that perhaps, in order to slander God's creatures, so that they too [may speak] injustice [and set] 'their mouth [against] heaven',

Translator's note. The clause after 'so that' is defective ('ἵνα καὶ ἀδικία οὐρανὸν τὸ στόμα αὐτῶν'), echoing Ps. 72(73):8-9; the bracketed words are supplied from the sense. The sentence continues in the next section.

The whole original: Perseus's Scaife Viewer.